Bracknell police chief Dave Gilbert is delighted at a drop in crime in Bracknell

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Bracknell is still a ‘safe place’, despite the number of offenders charged or cautioned for committing serious sexual offences falling by 21 per cent.

Figures reveal no action has been taken in a number of sexual assault cases, causing detection rates for serious sexual offences to drop from 36.1 per cent to 15.1 per cent for 2012/13.

But crime in the borough has reduced by 10.9 per cent, in the latest performance figures revealed by Thames Valley Police.

Chief Inspector Dave Gilbert, Local Policing Area (LPA) commander for Bracknell Forest, said: “Bracknell is still a very safe place to live.

“Some of these offences are low level and others may be down to Operation Yew Tree – the investigation into Jimmy Savile.

“This low detection rate is the same across the Thames Valley.

“We have the same team working on these offences now as we did last year and they’re extremely dedicated.”

The figures also reveal rape, harassment and theft from vehicles are on the rise, but the borough still has one of the lowest burglary rates in the Thames Valley.

In the last year there were 194 burglaries from homes in Bracknell Forest, compared to 323 in Wokingham and 618 in Maidenhead and Windsor.

Ch Insp Gilbert said: “It’s fantastic to be able to show people we’re doing so well.

“There has been a slight increase in burglaries, but just to put that into perspective, that’s only 13 or 14 more crimes and we still have one of the lowest rates of burglary in the whole of the Thames Valley.

“It’s such a small percentage and last year Bracknell had the lowest number of burglaries for 20 years.”

Police are also improving their crime detection rates, with a suspect either being cautioned or charged for 32 per cent of all burglaries from homes, while last year only 24 per cent of burglaries were detected.

Ch Insp Gilbert added: “Our detection rate is very high, again compared to other boroughs in the area we are in the top.”

But he said the crime rate could still improve.

He said: “For such a large town the level of crime is remarkably low, but it’s not all up to us.

“People must protect themselves against crime, we’ve got to make it as hard as possible to commit a crime.”